This invention relates generally to the field of telephony, and more particularly to an improved form of modular wall jack for providing connection between a subscriber pair and a subscriber-owned hand set or other equipment.
In recent years there has been the initiation of regulartory policy encouraging subscriber ownership of on-premises equipment. Such equipment is now readily available from a variety of sources, the equipment being both replicative of original equipment, and available in forms which offer previously unavailable conveniences.
With the innovation by Western Electric Company of the RJ 11 Coupling, the interconnection of such equipment presently requires only a simple plugging-in operation on the part of the subscriber, assuming that a corresponding wall jack is available. Very often this is not the case, and it becomes necessary to provide not only the jack itself in surface mounted form, but the physical interconnections of wiring from the subscriber equipment to the corresponding subscriber pair. Using known type wall jacks, the operation requires not only the stripping and interconnection of the wires to screw terminals, but the performing of this step in an inconvenient location at or near a baseboard located at the lower edge of a building wall. Not all subscribers are possessed of the requisite skill and agility. On the other hand, the calling in of an outside installer can be quite costly.